16. Chapter 16
“Jase?”
He was taking in the chalky black-light paint on the walls of the relic held together by rusted metal paneling and rum-soaked linoleum when he spotted a mane of fiery hair coming toward him.
“Penny?”
The only natural redhead he remembered from his grade came out from behind the bar to give him a hug, as if they were more than casual acquaintances who graduated together a hell of a long time ago.
“Shoot, Jase, what are these?” She groped the biceps beneath his leather jacket. “Do you have muscles? Or are you having an allergic reaction? I’m fresh out of epi-pens.”
He was used to this, the shock and fawning over how he’d changed since high school. And he enjoyed it, living out more than one prepubescent fantasy now that he had more to offer than shaggy hair and braces. But not today.
“Yeah,” he said, spotting Graham and Helen bellied up to the bar Jase hoped to drink at alone. “I’m allergic to assholes.”
“Come, sit. I was just telling Graham I have something for you.”
Penny slid behind the bar and Jase left a stool between himself and Graham, acknowledging his brother and Helen with a nod.
Graham nodded back. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m thirsty,” Jase said. “I didn’t think this was your kind of place.”
“It’s not.” He jabbed his thumb at Helen. “It was her idea.”
“It was your dad’s idea,” she corrected him. “Forget already?”
“How can I? Every time I turn around, another one of his bad ideas punches me in the face.”
“No, that was Lindsey,” Jase said, his lip twitching at the memory of Lindsey decking his brother on the desert highway.
“You aren’t kidding,” Graham scoffed.
“I didn’t expect to see you here either,” Helen said pointedly. “Didn’t you have other plans?”
“Other plans?” Graham asked. Obviously his fiancée hadn’t mentioned texting Jase.
“Fell through,” he muttered.
His phone buzzed against his thigh. He’d been ignoring texts from Chloe saying they needed to talk, as if their last meeting in Monterey left anything unsaid.
He checked the message now in case it was Lindsey wanting to bust his balls. It wasn’t. Just an all-caps message from Chloe to CALL ME ASAP. He pocketed it as Penny’s head popped up from underneath the bar, cobwebs clinging to her glasses. She set a bottle of bourbon between Jase and Graham.
“Your dad left this for you,” she said. “I heard about what happened to him and I’m so, so sorry.”
Jase ignored the sad look on her face everyone reserved for death and eyed the bottle that didn’t belong at the Haunt but wasn’t fancy enough for his old man’s private stash either.
“Chicken Cock?” he asked. “Are you serious?”
“What’s the matter? You don’t dig the cock?” Penny set three shot glasses on the bar and began to pour. “It’s okay. Turns out, I’m not crazy about it either.”
It took Jase a beat to realize she had outed herself with a wink. He accepted the shot glass she offered and tipped his head.
“Well, congratulations.” Then, since he’d already made an ass out of himself today and just couldn’t help it, he said, “You know, I could get into that.”
Graham grunted into his glass.
“Sorry, stud,” Penny said. “You aged well, Jase Young, but my girlfriend likes cock even less than I do.”
Jase swallowed the shot and set it out for another.
“I heard your dad used to play here.” Penny said, refilling Jase’s glass. She pinched the collar of her Old Men Play 3 T-shirt. “I found these in the back. One of the other bartenders told me it was his band.”
“It was,” Jase said. “And he did.”
“You sang with them too, didn’t you?”
Graham looked at Jase, wearing the scowl his brother seemed to reserve for him. Jase kind of thought the fight at the storage unit worked some of their shit out.
“Sometimes,” Jase admitted.
“You did?” Graham asked.
“It was just a handful of times.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jase frowned. “Really?”
“Why didn’t he tell me?” Graham asked.
“Maybe he thought you didn’t care.”
Graham’s scowl changed to something more curious than angry. “I didn’t even know you sang until that bar in Texas,” he said.
Jase remembered the stormy night at the karaoke bar outside of Lubbock when Graham watched him sing “Fat Bottomed Girls,” which was also the last song Jase sang with their dad’s band.
“What you don’t know about me could fill a book,” Jase said.
Graham nodded. “Likewise.” Then he surprised Jase by raising his glass. “What do you say we finish this bottle tonight?”
“Please say you’re joking,” Helen muttered and looked away. Might’ve scooted her stool farther from Graham too.
“I’ve got nothing else to do,” Jase said, raising his own. “To Dad.”
“To Dad.”
“And the dogs,” Jase chided.
Graham swallowed his Cock and said, “I hope those feral fuckers starve.”